


our meeting place

by tvfanatic97



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Established Relationship, F/M, Long-Distance Relationship, Romantic Fluff, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:49:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 22,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21638383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tvfanatic97/pseuds/tvfanatic97
Summary: “Hey, what town or city is exactly halfway between California and Massachusetts?” Peter asks in a whisper after a stretch of silence, his breath fanning across her face in a way that causes her to shiver slightly.MJ scoffs because that’s not what she expected him to say at this very moment. “Probably some place in Nebraska, I don’t know. I’m not Google, Peter.“Yeah but you’re like, the smartest person to have ever lived. You know everything. Who needs Google when I have Michelle Jones?”MJ has to bite her lip to stifle a grin because he’s being ridiculous. What a dumbass, her dumbass. She loves him so much.-Or: Peter and MJ make a plan to meet up at a halfway point between Stanford and MIT once a semester to cope with being in a long-distance relationship when they go to college.
Relationships: Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Comments: 47
Kudos: 316





	our meeting place

**Author's Note:**

> rq for the sake of the fic: here in the UK uni semesters are divided into a fall/winter semester and a spring/summer semester w the divide being in Feb after Jan exams so I just stuck to that for this fic (idk how things work in the states sorry) and also, Aurora is a real place but the version of it in this fic is entirely fictional.
> 
> finally, thank you to perfectlystill for her encouragement and for answering my dumb, inconsequential qs during the process of writing this as always and to seekrest for being the greatest hypewoman ever! x

As far as summer nights go, it’s relatively cool in MJ’s room thanks to the small box fan she’d been gifted by May when she complained about the temperamental AC in her room that sits in the corner of her room, sitting on a chair stolen from the dining room she had Peter transfer over to her room. The whirring of the small fan as it spins serves as a nice, constant and oddly soothing background noise in the otherwise mostly quiet room, the only other sounds being the quiet snores of the boy wrapped around her along with the faint, distant sounds of the city that lives on outside the cocoon of her room.

Her room is mostly dark bar the blue glow from her laptop that now sits on the floor beside her bed with the documentary paused long ago when it became apparent the pair were more interested in the other’s bodies than the exploits of Agnès Varda and JR as they explored rural France (she’ll likely re-watch it – by herself this time – at a later point because she was genuinely interested in watching the movie). As well as her laptop there is the soft glow emanating from the string of fairy lights that precariously hang on the wall at the head of her bed, being held up by a single nail that was there prior to her and her dad moving into the apartment and strategically placed bits of Fun Tak seeing as their landlord won’t allow them to drill holes, insert nails or do anything permanent to the apartment.

The soft, yellowish hue cast by the lights allows her to study the lines and contours of the part of Peter’s face she can see as he sleeps with his head resting in the crook of her neck, his arm draped across her bare chest and one of his legs tucked in between both of hers so she’s entirely wrapped up in his hold and warmth. Wrapped up in _him_.

They were meant to be having a date of pizza and a movie, nothing extravagant, but they’d gotten distracted not even fifteen minutes into the documentary and one and a half slices into the pizza that now sits cold next to her laptop. Peter had also knocked out soon after they finished despite his promises of how they would carry on with their date and watch the documentary MJ was looking forward to watching all week after they were finished, whispered between desperate kisses laved across every inch of skin he could get to.

She can’t really find it in her to be mad or even vaguely annoyed at their plans being ruined however, she knows that with the time they have until they move away to college – her to Stanford and him to MIT – dwindling away, he’s been putting in way more hours of patrol, antsy at the prospect of the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man having to be away from said neighborhood for an extended period of time despite how excited he generally is about college.

MJ manoeuvres her hand out from under Peter’s head where it was on the verge of going numb and uses the same fingers that previously mussed his hair and made it into the unruly mess it is now to gently run through it. As she does so she gets to thinking about this new chapter of their life they’re about to embark on in six days.

It’s exciting, terrifying, and nerve-wracking all at once for various reasons. The main one she’s thinking of relates to the boy currently using her as a body pillow, namely the distance – 3,125.6 miles to be exact, if Google is to be trusted and can you really trust the things you read on the internet? – and having to be away from him.

It’s not as if she’s the clingy type of girlfriend, or that they’re the co-dependent type of couple but the prospect of being so far from him, of having to be away from him when she’d only had him back – like properly had him back, not going to see him in the safehouses he’d been hiding out in at the dead of night with May and Ned in tow – for all of eight months since his name had been cleared of all charges levied against him by Mysterio posthumously.

It’s not fair.

It’s not fair that they’ll have to contend with distance, on top of all the other shit including Peter’s fears about Spider-Man’s enemies hurting her and MJ’s fears about Spider-Man’s enemies hurting _him._ If MJ had her way she’d keep Peter with her here in her room forever but she knows she’s being ridiculous, it’s always been her dream to go to Stanford and she’s happy that Peter has opted to get a college education especially since he was considering just doing Spider-Man full-time for a while there, not seeing the point of pursuing a life outside of being a superhero, of having a personal life when it could all go to shit with one doctored video from a dead man with a vendetta.

She’s being selfish but she can’t help but be scared and feel anxious about what the future holds for them as she looks down at Peter’s sleeping form; he’s sleeping peacefully none the wiser to the mini-meltdown she’s currently having.

As she’s about to start trying to calm down and talk herself down Peter jerks awake, his head shooting up off her shoulder hurriedly – the only thing stopping him from getting up into a defensive stance being MJ’s legs which are tangled around one of his.

“What? What’s wrong?” He asks, voice sleep-laden and eyes only half-open as he looks around the room hurriedly as if searching for some kind of danger lurking in the darkened corners of her room that the light from her fairy lights don’t quite reach.

MJ brings her hand that was previously running through his hair before he startled awake up to the back of his head and attempts to gently guide him back to lie on her chest. “Nothing, nothing is wrong Peter. We’re in my room, you fell asleep an hour ago. Just go back to sleep.”

Peter doesn’t go down easily, instead moving to sit up so he’s looking down at her. “I heard your heart racing, are you okay?” He asks the question quietly, voice gentle and probing. He brings a hand down to gently stroke her cheek and stares at her with wide, pleading eyes that show his concern so clearly that it makes MJ want to shy away from his gaze.

“Oh nothing, just thought I saw a spider on the ceiling,” she whispers out the lie.

Peter watches her for a moment, and she can tell that he can tell that she’s not being honest. She thinks he’s going to call her out then and there but instead what he says is, “You should’ve woken me up, I’d have gotten rid of the spider for you.” He makes a show of flexing his arm that’s not currently resting on her face in a show of strength and false bravado, making MJ giggle.

“You’re also scared of spiders so I don’t know how that would’ve helped,” she teases back, bringing up Spider-Man’s little known fear.

“Yeah, but I’d face my fears for you Em,” he declares so easily as he moves to lie back down finally, his words slightly muffled by the yawn he lets out as he does so.

MJ has to bite back a wide grin at his words. Peter is always making these huge declarations without even realising the significance of them or how much they make her heart flutter embarrassingly in her chest and heat rise to her cheeks; her dumbass.

After that they lie there in a slightly charged, uncomfortable silence. MJ goes back to gently carding her fingers through his curls whilst Peter runs a hand up and down her torso, taking the time to map out her body. His touch causes a slight shiver to crawl down her spine but there is no ulterior motive to his movements, he’s just doing it like he can never get enough of touching her and needs to be touching some part of her at all times possible.

His touch helps to relax her somewhat though her anxieties about college still linger but she’s starting to feel sleepy, her eyelids drooping the longer they lie here like this and with Peter’s soothing touch.

She’s about to succumb to the lull of sleep when Peter speaks up, breaking the silence they’d settled into. “Have you been thinking about college?” His voice is so quiet that MJ has to strain to hear him. “I know you’ve been worried about going long distance,” again his words are said in a quiet whisper, mumbled against the skin of her neck so she can feel his warm breath brush against her as he speaks.

And of course, of course Peter had been able to tell how anxious she was about going to different coasts for college, had likely seen her constantly googling the distance between their two colleges and the cost of flights as well intently studying their calendars to look at their term dates and see when they both have time off at the same time. She forgets how observant and attuned to her Peter is at times. She’s been observing him for so long – since they were in Middle School – that now having him observe her back is something she has yet to become used to.

“Yeah, I just – I’m worried. I know it’s stupid,” she finally admits and she feels stupid and like she’s burdening him. Peter is so worried about Spider-Man being away from New York and is almost killing himself trying to squeeze in as much crime-fighting as he can before he moves to Cambridge, he doesn’t need his girlfriend’s worries compounded on top of all of that as well. She’s such a burden.

“It’s not stupid, I’ve been worried about it too,” he quietly admits. He moves to lie down next to her and mirrors her position so he’s on his back and facing the ceiling rather than looking directly at her for the next part of the conversation because he likely knows that these types of conversations – the heavy, feelings-heavy types of conversations – can be a lot for MJ who’s so unaccustomed to the level of vulnerability and openness they require, so he does little things to minimise the intensity for her: doesn’t look directly at her, does most of the talking, and most importantly, doesn’t push her.

A pause, then: “I’ve gotten so used to just swinging over here anytime you text me to come over, or when I’m done patrolling and I want nothing more to be around you. It’s just part of my routine to spend the night here on most days of the week after dropping May a text. I’m gonna miss that. I’m gonna miss _you_.”

MJ turns her head sideways to look at him and he’s still looking away from her at the ceiling so she just watches his side profile momentarily, and even though she can’t see his eyes properly she can just see and feel the sincerity of his words, allows that sincerity to wash over her and provide her some comfort since it’s not just her who’s worried. “You’re just gonna miss regularly having sex,” she teases because if she doesn’t bring levity to the moment right now she thinks she might cry and that would be embarrassing.

Peter finally turns his head sideways so he’s looking at her with a wide grin that beams even in the limited light from her fairy lights. “That too,” he says with an easy shrug and a grin.

He looks so undeniably kissable that she can’t help but roll the rest of her body sideways so she’s fully facing him and scoot closer to him before she presses her lips against his in a languid kiss she hopes communicates to him the love bursting in her heart.

They pull apart from the kiss but still maintain their proximity, just watching each other with small smiles that are both joy-filled and sad at the same time.

“Hey, what town or city is exactly halfway between California and Massachusetts?” Peter asks in a whisper after a stretch of silence, his breath fanning across her face in a way that causes her to shiver slightly.

MJ scoffs because that’s not what she expected him to say at this very moment. “Probably some place in Nebraska, I don’t know. I’m not Google, Peter.”

“Yeah but you’re like, the smartest person to have ever lived. You know everything. Who needs Google when I have Michelle Jones?”

MJ has to bite her lip to stifle a grin because he’s being ridiculous. What a dumbass, her dumbass. She loves him so much.

Instead of shouting out how much she loves him the way she has the overwhelming urge to do, she rolls onto her back once again then reaches an arm out for her phone on the bedside table. Once she grabs it she quickly Googles the pressing question, then: “Aurora, Nebraska.”

MJ places her phone back on the bedside table then turns to face Peter who’s now lying on his side with his head propped up in his elbow so he’s looking down at her, smile wide as can be and eyes shiny and gleaming with _something_. “How about, every semester we meet up in Aurora no matter what.”

“Yeah?” MJ breathes out, and it’s all she can get out because she’s feeling pretty overwhelmed.

“Yeah, it can be our own little meeting place. One weekend every semester we both travel there and spend time together, uninterrupted.”

Without thinking twice, MJ reaches her arms up to wrap around Peter’s neck so she can drag him down to lie on top of her and kiss him. She starts off by just pressing small pecks against his cheeks, his forehead, his nose before ending on his lips then she grazes a path along his bottom lip with her tongue and nips gently with teeth, causing him to open up his mouth for her so they can deepen the kiss. Peter repositions himself so he’s fully situated between her legs which have naturally made room for him and he lies his full weight on her so the hard planes of his chest gently press against the soft swells of hers.

MJ gets lost in the sensation of his tongue moving in tandem with hers, gets lost in the way he naturally starts to grind into her as they kiss, creating delicious friction that draws a small moan from the back of her throat. But Peter pulls away from the kiss and MJ lets out a small whine of protest before she can stop herself.

“So is that a yes to the idea or…?” He asks, half-joking but half seeking her approval.

MJ rolls her eyes at him. “You’re the most annoying person I know,” is all she responds with, causing Peter to let out a breathless laugh before he’s leaning down to reconnect their lips.

* * *

**_year 1, semester 1_ **

MJ checks her phone for likely the twentieth time within the last sixty seconds, quickly re-reading Peter’s words for the umpteenth time since she first received his message when she landed and took her phone off airplane mode.

> **Bug-Boy <3** _: Here at the motel. Can’t wait to see you :) <3<3<3_

And just like the first time she read the message, a warmth blooms within her, her heart rate inches up by a measure, and she feels breathless. She has to bite on the knuckle of her index finger to stop herself from squealing. It’s embarrassing and ridiculous really— the person Peter has turned her into.

She quickly closes iMessage, takes a deep calming breath to get herself in check, then opens up her Google Maps app to see how long is left till they get to the motel they’d found via Google searches her and Peter did in her room at 2am those few months back before they started college, when Peter had first formulated this plan for them to meet up in Aurora, Nebraska once a semester.

She sees that there’s just ten minutes left until she reaches her destination then locks her phone and puts it away into the front pocket of her backpack to stop herself reading Peter’s text over and over again like a giddy schoolgirl.

She allows her eyes to wander over the interior of the taxi she’s in for the first time since the driver picked her up at the airport, looks over at the Star of David necklace that hangs over the rear-view mirror and the pink, fluffy cover over the steering wheel.

The steering wheel cover seems like the exact kind of thing Peter would have in his car if he owned one or if he could even drive, that is, and that little thought catapults into her thinking about Peter and how much she can’t wait to see him, to touch him and kiss him, and to just be around him in the same place for the first time in six weeks.

She gets so caught up in thinking of Peter and her eyes must linger on the steering wheel cover for too long because the driver explains, “I let my daughter decorate the car.”

MJ tears her gaze away from the steering wheel cover, realising she’d been staring at it the whole time she was lost in thought. “Oh no I’m not—I wasn’t judging your car decorations. It’s really nice,” she says and gives him a small, reassuring smile in the rear-view mirror where their eyes meet.

The man just lets out a chuckle. “Why thank you, I’ll let my daughter know.”

They then go back to driving in relative silence and MJ stews in embarrassment over her rude staring for the remainder of the drive which fortunately turns out to not be very long as he pulls up in front of what were it not for the sign that reads “ _Budget Host-Ken’s Motel_ ” she wouldn’t have realised is a motel.

MJ has to make a concerted effort to hand the taxi driver cash slowly and get out of the car at a normal pace with her luggage in tow, then not slam the door and run to the front desk of the motel where she knows Peter will likely be waiting out of excitement to see him.

It’s incredibly difficult but she just about manages to act like a normal human being, and walks at a normal, unrushed pace to the front desk. But the façade fades away when Peter spots her just as she’s going to open the door to the little office and hurriedly gets out of his seat and flings the door open before gathering her up in his arms and lifting her off the ground in a tight hug.

“You’re here,” he mumbles against her neck where his head is buried in her shoulder, voice filled with a reverence that causes MJ to wrap her arms tighter around his neck and bring her legs up to wrap around his waist snugly so she’s as close to him as possible.

It’s amazing how just being in Peter’s arms once again causes all the tension to sort of melt away, for lack of a non-clichéd way of describing the way he makes her feel. The anxiety and exhaustion derived from all the excitement and rush of the first months of college, all derived from meeting a variety of people and new experiences and a new type of learning, all just fades away with her mind and being zoning in on just Peter and his hold and his distinct smell that’s a mixture of the vanilla body lotion he’s been using since he first borrowed it from her when he’d stayed the night at her apartment back in New York, his jasmine fabric softener, his deodorant and a hint of peppermint (he’s always carried a pack of gum for as long as they’ve been together officially, because _“I always have to be prepared to kiss you at any given moment, MJ”_ ).

“You’re here,” she returns lamely, filled with the kind of overwhelming joy she never thought was humanly possible. What has Peter turned her into?

“Okayyyy,” the young woman who looks no more than two or three years older than them drawls after they’ve stayed like that for too long. “Do you guys want a room or not?”

The pair hurriedly separate, embarrassed at their little display – MJ especially seeing as she’s not one for PDA usually, avoids it at all costs in fact.

Once MJ’s feet are firmly back on the ground and her and Peter have put as much distance between them as the small office allows, they finally take a few steps forward to go right up to the desk where the girl, who MJ can now see according to her name badge is called Alicia, sits.

“We’d like one double room for the two of us please ma’am,” Peter requests politely, sliding the pile of cash comprised of his half and MJ’s half which she’d Venmo’d him so he could get the cash out whilst he waited for her flight to land 55 minutes after his.

Both MJ and Alicia turn to Peter with their eyes narrowed and smirks on their faces at his overly formal tone and the use of the word “ma’am” in particular, causing his face to turn a hue of pink. He clears his throat and reaches a hand up to scratch at the back of his neck. “Sorry,” he mumbles.

Alicia just rolls her eyes before getting off her seat to go to the cabinet in the corner where the motel keys are presumably kept, leaving Peter to stew in his embarrassment.

MJ reaches a hand sideways to grab his hand in hers and to squeeze it. The action causes Peter to turn to look at her and she offers him a small smile, the one she has reserved just for him, which has the desired effect of getting him to relax.

Once they have their room keys Peter grabs both his duffel bag in one hand and her backpack and slings one over a shoulder then holds the door open for MJ to walk through first. They then make their way around the front building to the wing of the motel where their room is located, walking at a slow regular pace like normal human beings rather than lovesick idiots brimming with excitement at being in the same place again.

MJ’s resolve lasts up until Peter gets the door to their room open after a few attempts where the door jams and Peter has to jiggle the key a couple of times and use his shoulder to push the door open whilst ensuring he doesn’t use too much force to break the door off its hinges (super strength and all). Once the door is open and Peter takes a baby step to cross the threshold MJ pushes him the rest of way into the room and Peter barely has enough time to put the keys down on the table near the door and their bags on the floor nearby before MJ has him collapsing onto the bed before landing on top of him.

Peter’s hands automatically come up to hold her hips and he moves her so she’s more firmly on top of him then looks up at her with a bright grin. “Hi,” he whispers ever so quietly, like it’s a greeting meant only for her which is unnecessary given that they’re alone in this room. With her hair forming a curtain around them it does feel like they’re in their own little world.

“Hi,” she responds, volume equally low to match Peter’s, before pressing her lips against his to kiss him for the first time since she went with May in her vintage Volkswagen to drop him off at MIT just over six weeks ago now.

Though it’s been over six weeks, their lips move in a way that’s practised and familiar, as if it’s only been a few minutes since they last kissed. The pace of the kiss is leisurely and exploratory allowing MJ the chance to savour the warmth of his lips pressed against hers. She’s glad to feel that he’s made wearing lip balm a habit ever since she complained about his lips constantly being dry and chapped from the cold wind he’s exposed to when he’s out swinging around in his suit.

Eventually when the need for air necessitates that they pull apart, they do so then just watch each other momentarily with matching goofy, wide grins and twinkling eyes. MJ brings her head down to rest on his shoulder because she feels lightheaded.

After a moment of revelling in the silence and the comfort of being in each other’s arms once again, Peter speaks, breaking the comfortable silence they’d settled into. “So, I was thinking we could go out and explore Aurora today.”

MJ lifts her head up to face him so he can see the pout on her face. “I just wanna stay in here all weekend with you.”

“I thought it’d be nice to explore Aurora. Seeing as we’re gonna be coming here so often and all,” he says with a shrug, voice small and shy.

And how can MJ say no to that, to _him_. She has a reputation to maintain though, so she pretends to be affronted. With a prolonged sigh, “Ugh, I guess we can go out and explore Buttfuck, Nowhere.”

Neither of them still make a move to get up though, staying wrapped up in each other’s embrace and allowing the elation of being with each other again to linger blissfully in the air around them and cocoon them.

“Okay,” MJ finally says before pushing herself off Peter with a huff of effort. “I’m gonna freshen up then we can head out.”

“Yes ma’am,” Peter responds, finally getting off the bed.

MJ fishes her toiletry bag out of her larger backpack and goes to the tiny adjoining bathroom where she quickly splashes her face with lukewarm water then applies some moisturiser whilst her face is still damp, followed by some SPF.

When she goes back to the bedroom she sees that Peter has changed out of the shirt he wore for his flight into another white, wrinkled one. She follows suit and pulls her Stark Industries hoodie (it’s technically his that she stole from him nearly a year ago and has kept) and the t-shirt she wears underneath off at once.

She catches Peter’s intent gaze focused on her bare chest, because what’s the point of wearing a bra on a flight or like, _ever,_ once she’s undressed.

MJ snorts at him. “You’re the one who suggested we leave and go explore the town, remember?”

Peter tears his gaze away from her naked chest and rushes to meet her eyes to try and pretend as if he hadn’t just been shamelessly ogling her; MJ doesn’t mind it though, it’s nice to be on the receiving end of Peter’s stares after she’s spent so long watching him even if she’s still trying to get used to Peter actually watching _her_. Though Peter tries to pretend he hadn’t just been watching her naked top half, the crimson color of his cheeks gives away his embarrassment at having been caught.

He quickly clears his throat and makes a show of trying to get her to hurry up and get dressed. “Yeah, uh, yeah let’s go. It’s already 1pm and who knows when everything in such a small town closes.”

MJ rolls her eyes at him but hurries to pull a new t-shirt on before putting the Stark Industries hoodie back on over the top. After she’s done and she’s grabbed her wallet and phone from her back, the pair make their way out of the motel room hand in hand.

She is not a PDA/any type of physical contact with your significant other in public person _at all_ but there’s a sense of freedom that comes with being in a small town in the middle of nowhere where you don’t know anyone and no one knows you, a sense of freedom that makes her feel comfortable to do things she wouldn’t usually do like hold hands – fingers tightly interlocked – with Peter and let him bring their joined hands up to his lips to press a quick kiss to the back of her hand as they walk. It’s stupid but being in Aurora feels like they’re in their own little world where she can be as affectionate as she wants and not feel embarrassed; being here makes her feel like a whole different person, or maybe not quite a different person, but she certainly feels comfortable being the way only Peter gets to see usually out in public.

She revels in that sense of freedom as the two walk through the small town center, stopping in each of the three local boutiques where they spend the time trying out the most ridiculous and unlike them clothes and hats they can find. Peter takes hundreds of pictures of her in the ostentatious baby pink fur coat (seriously, who the hell in Aurora Nebraska would buy something like that?) she tries on, along with hundreds more of her in everything else she tries much to her embarrassment.

When they get bored of trying on clothes they have no intent of buying/the owner in the third store starts eyeing the pair impatiently and with annoyance at their antics, they eventually give up on window shopping and head to the local grocery store/deli hybrid that seems to serve all the food shopping needs of the residents that’s run by a kindly elderly man named Larry who greets them with a kind, open smile and assures them if they ever have any questions about the town they can always come find him here in the store.

(Honestly it’s kind of freaky just how nice and welcoming everyone in this town is—MJ tries to not think about all the horror films she’s watched over the years a la Stepford Wives about how suburban, perfect towns like this hide some sinister secrets behind their façade of small town hospitality but she fails).

There they buy a bottle of water, much to MJ’s chagrin, and a packet of chips both of which they share on the bus to Edgerton Explorit Center to quickly go around it in the remaining hour and a half before it closes for the day.

On the short journey over there, the two sit pressed up close to each other and occasionally steal kisses – it’s mainly Peter who’ll kiss her at random moments just because he “feels like it”, really. It goes with that sense of freedom, the freedom to be openly affectionate and act like it’s just her and Peter that MJ feels.

They continue to be openly affectionate once they get to the museum too, briskly walking around all the science-related exhibits in place hand-in-hand. MJ is content to trail behind Peter as he pulls her along with him by their adjoined hands, in his element with all the science that surrounds him. She watches his almost childlike wonder and excitement with a small grin over the course of the entire hour and a half they’re in the museum, and because of Peter’s excitement the security staff even allows them to stay a further 15 minutes beyond the 5pm closing time just to finish up.

After they’re done they wind up at a small diner in the center of town they’d seen earlier when they were pretending to shop for clothes where they do the cheesy, gross thing of having a single milkshake with two straws between them. They don’t go as far as sitting next to each other instead of opposite each other on their table though, MJ – even as her publicly affectionate alter ego who exists only in Aurora – has her limits.

The diner is nice and quiet, and the waitress who serves them (Eleanora according to her name badge) is sweet and gives them extra of everything they order. She keeps commenting on what a cute couple they are time and time again which MJ should find a bit annoying but she doesn’t mind it. When they first started dating her self-doubt would often tell her they were mismatched, the happy go-lucky optimist and the grumpy pessimist, would tell her she didn’t deserve him but through work on herself and reassurances from Peter both through his words and actions she’s mostly let that doubt go now. It’s nice to have a stranger who doesn’t know them almost affirm the relationship, not that she cares about other people’s approval but she’s only human.

MJ watches Peter basically scoff down his burger and have a mixture of the regular fries he ordered and the sweet potato fries MJ ordered feeling content and lighter than she has in the past month and a half since she started college. It’s incredible really, the effect just being around someone can have on your whole mood.

She already knew that Peter is one of the smartest people she knows, smarter than a large proportion of her Stanford professors if she’s being honest, but his idea for them to meet up here just cements that for her.

* * *

**_year 1, semester 2_ **

MJ rushes out a brief and curt thank you to the driver with the pink fluffy steering wheel cover whose name she’s now since learned is David – Dave to MJ because she’s polite, unlike some of the people he’s driven – before gathering her belongings and stepping out of the cab and walking towards the room where Peter is already waiting for her, having gone ahead and collected the keys so he could wait in the room rather than by the front desk given that his flight arrived a whole two hours before hers this time.

She walks briskly past the front office where she sees that Alicia is working today and the pair just give each other small polite nods of acknowledgement before MJ carries on, her pace quickening to an almost jog as she rushes around to their room.

She’s excited to see Peter for the first time in some weeks since they saw each other last back home in New York over spring break, but she’s wound up, the anxiety and frustration of this period leading up to their finals still sitting heavy on her shoulders. On top of that she’d had a horrible flight where she had to sit next to an old white woman who kept treating the hostesses like shit and complaining about every little inconvenience which was out of the staff’s control, and kept trying to get MJ to join in on her mistreatment of the undeserving staff as well. As if that wasn’t enough, she had a kid about ten or so sitting in the seat directly behind her who’d periodically kick the back of her seat whenever boredom struck him.

So all in all she’s not in the best of moods and knocks on the motel door of the very same room they stayed in last time they were here with a little more force than is necessary.

A lot of her frustration and anger quickly dissipates when the door swings open to reveal the kind, open brown eyes and the easy smile that’s so much brighter in person compared to through the 6.1 inch screen of her phone.

He’s so attuned to her that he seems to sense her annoyance and frustration that he just automatically, wordlessly wraps an arm around her waist to pull her into their room. Once he’s closed the door behind them he then takes his arm away from her waist and carefully takes the heavy backpack off her back and places it on the floor by the small table and chairs. He takes her hand in his and leads her to sit on the bed where he takes her shoes off for her.

Once her shoes are off she brings her feet up so she can properly lie on the bed and Peter joins her soon after, going around to the other side of the bed to lie next to her on his side so he’s facing her.

Peter goes to open his mouth, likely to greet her for the first time but she interrupts him by bringing a hand up to wrap around his neck and pull his lips down to press against hers in a searing, greedy kiss that seems to last forever.

When they eventually do pull apart, Peter gets out a, “MJ—” between pants.

MJ interrupts him. “Please, I need this,” she says, voice above a whisper. She doesn’t want to sound needy but she’s been so stressed out and had missed Peter so much that there’s nothing that she wants more than to just be close to him, to have him hold her and touch her in the way only he seems to know how to, and to have him inside her right now.

Peter eagerly nods, grabbing the hem of his t-shirt so he can pull it off in one move. MJ is in the process of taking off her own t-shirt when Peter speaks, “You have to talk about it too, though.”

She’s already too busy kissing him hungrily to respond, nimble fingers moving down to work on unbuttoning and unzipping his jeans to get them off. She sighs happily, relieved, when Peter’s firm hands grip her hips and he not quite roughly, but it’s not soft and careful either, moves her so she’s lying beneath him. MJ readily parts her legs to create a familiar space for him.

When Peter pulls away from their kiss and trails his lips down the column of her throat MJ finally starts to talk about what’s got her so worked up because Peter is a firm believer in talking things through, something she’s now more or less accustomed to and has since adopted as a coping mechanism as well. “I nearly missed my fucking flight because of fucking Kyle.”

“It still sends me that his name is actually Kyle,” Peter says when he briefly pulls away from the space where her left shoulder meets her neck where he was peppering kisses. “So fitting,” he mumbles before he dips back down to continue kissing a path leading to her chest.

MJ snorts. “He kept our class discussion going longer than necessary because he kept insisting on playing devil’s advocate.”

“That’s _so_ Kyle,” Peter huffs, bringing a hand up to knead at one of her breasts before he rolls the nipple between his thumb and index and middle fingers.

“I’m so sick of white dudes who insist on playing devil’s advocate at any given opportunity when no one has asked them to nor wants them to just for the sake of being contrarian and “ _edgy_ ”.”

Whilst his hand works over one breast Peter starts laving open mouthed kisses over the other, working up from the flesh of the underside in the direction of the sensitive skin at the center.

“I’m so tired of white men thinking they have to share their opinions and views because they’re _oh so_ important and revolutionary, or thinking that everyone else owes them their time and has to hear them—” She pauses, sighs out a shaky breath when Peter’s lips finally wrap around the hardened bud and he starts working it over with his tongue and the slightest bit of teeth. “Like, just because you’re a white dude doesn’t mean everyone has to listen to every thought out of your head.”

Peter pulls away, and the cool air hitting the pebbled skin causes MJ to shiver slightly and Peter is using his mouth to work over the other side before she can even catch her breath.

“Anyway,” she carries on, back arching up at Peter’s ministrations and a hand snaking up to grip his hair as he works her over to encourage him. “I managed to make it to the airport just on time despite Mr White Privilege’s best efforts. But then on the plane I was sat next to this old white woman – think like, the reason why the “Okay, Boomer” meme exists old white woman – who was being a classic old white woman.”

“She wasn’t racist to you was she?” Peter asks when he eventually pulls away from her chest, face contorted in anger at the thought. As he speaks he trails a hand into her sweatpants and he presses his fingers against her center over her underwear. He looks up at her with eyebrows raised in keen interest at his findings.

MJ rolls her eyes. “I got myself there, relax.”

Peter just smiles knowingly but in a way that doesn’t come off as cocky or annoying because it’s him.

MJ elects to ignore him. “Take off your pants and get on your back,” she demands as she gets off the bed to take off her own pants and underwear before padding to her abandoned backpack where she grabs the large box of condom she packed before going back to the bed where she finds Peter naked and on his back like she asked.

His eyes flit to the large box of many condoms then back to meet her eyes and he knows better than to make a comment or tease her but she doesn’t miss the up-quirk of the corner of his mouth, his curiosity and amusement apparent.

MJ places the box down on the old bedside table then comes to sit with her legs bracketing Peter’s hips.

“You never answered my question,” Peter says then stifles a moan as she grabs his half-hard length and begins stroking her hand up and down.

“No, luckily for me.” She continues the motions of her hand, picking up her pace a notch as she speaks. “But she kept making small sly Lesbophobic comments about the couple that were sitting in front of us.”

“Ugh,” is all Peter can get out to express his disgust, too distracted by her actions to say more.

MJ eventually stops and moves to grab a condom foil which she quickly rips open with her teeth before sheathing Peter with the condom. She wastes no time in shifting her position so she can take him in until the point where he bottoms out in her.

She places her hands flat on Peter’s chest for leverage then starts moving, up and down motions and the occasional roll of her hips because of the friction against her clit it creates and because it causes Peter to scrunch his eyes closed and moan lowly which is still the hottest thing she’s ever heard. She carries on moving as Peter thrusts up as well, with his hands gripping her hips and for a while the only sounds that fill the old motel room are the sounds of their bodies moving together and breathy moans from both of them.

When she’s found a rhythm she can maintain with relative ease she eventually gets back to her previous topic of conversation. “She also kept complaining to the hostess looking after us about things so clearly out of her control like the turbulence and the saltiness of her in-flight meal. Like, what has that got to do with the poor woman trying to do her job to the best of her ability?”

“Poor hostess,” Peter says empathetically.

“She wasn’t the one flying the plane and she didn’t cook the flight meals so what does abusing her achieve? And Mrs Boomer also kept trying to get me to join in on her harassing this poor woman like—” MJ pauses both her words and her movements, taking a moment to take a deep breath in then out to catch her breath.

Peter lets out a light chuckle at her, moving one of his hands from where it grips her hip to press against the bundle of nerves at the apex of her thighs in small circular motions with just the right amount of pressure. “You’re really unfit,” he teases.

When she’s caught her breath she starts moving again and only then does she retort. “Fuck you.”

“You already are,” Peter responds with a wide, cheeky and pride-filled grin. She hates him so much.

“I think that probably sounded way smoother in your head,” she says, biting her lip to stifle a giggle as she continues to ride him.

Peter retaliates by moving both his hands up to tickle under her armpits, causing MJ to pause her movements as she shrieks, “Stop, stop, stop” between giggles and pants.

But he doesn’t relent, just continues tickling her despite her protests and half-hearted attempts to squirm away. When he finally does stop she ends up collapsing on top of him so they’re lying chest-to-chest with him still in her.

Suddenly things turn from teasing and light-hearted to intense as MJ slides her hands up from his chest to grip the sides of his face to press her lips against his in a fervent kiss whilst Peter’s own hands move down to grab her where her ass and thighs meet and he starts moving her up and down whilst simultaneously thrusting up into her, the pace he sets being far less leisurely than hers had been.

Their kissing becomes less kissing and more panting into each other’s mouths as Peter continues with his unrelenting pace and they both climb closer to the precipice.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” MJ pants out when she feels herself falling over the edge.

She doesn’t get to let her orgasm wash over her in gentle waves as Peter continues moving at the brisk pace he’s set, chasing his own release as his grip on her thighs tightens impossibly to the point where his hold is bruising. Then he just suddenly stops, reaching his climax and MJ leans up so she can look down at his face as he peaks – his face goes all red and splotchy, his eyebrows scrunching up and his lips forming an almost pout making it look like he’s concentrating on a difficult Math problem or complex Physics equation, it amuses MJ greatly.

Peter gently lifts her off him and places her on the bed next to him and swiftly removes and disposes of the condom before re-joining her on the bed then they just lie there for a few moments, both breathless and still riding the high of their orgasms.

Eventually Peter rolls over to face her and she also rolls onto her side so they’re facing each other. “Hi,” he greets and MJ bursts out laughing because she realises they never actually said hi, she just jumped him and started ranting about inconsequential things.

“Hi,” she greets back when she eventually stops laughing for long enough to speak. She leans forward to peck him on the lips, brief and with no intent to take things any further beyond just greeting him.

Peter brings a hand to rest in the dip of her waist and rubs indistinct patterns into the skin as they kiss, and MJ can’t even remember what she’d been so frustrated and annoyed about. She has no thoughts of Kyle or old white women or her impending finals, all she thinks about is the warmth of Peter’s touch and the immediate plans of what they’re gonna have for dinner along with the more distant plans of what they’re gonna do this weekend.

* * *

**_year 2, semester 1_ **

At this point it’s becoming a routine, a ritual if you will: MJ flies to Central Nebraska Regional airport (and she seems to a _lways_ land later than Peter so he’s the one waiting for her for once), she catches a cab to the motel driven by Dave and his pink fluffy steering wheel cover, her and Alicia at the front desk offer each other small polite nods in greeting as she walks past rushing to get to Peter then her and Peter spend their weekend in the small town dividing up their time between their room, the diner that’s become a favorite of theirs (it’s also the only one in town but that’s neither here nor there) and the local stores and museums.

It’s great, the routine they’re starting to build, comfortable and just _nice_. MJ loves it but she should’ve known Peter and his restless energy, Peter who’s always in search of things to do and new discoveries, would start to become bored of it but she doesn’t even think about it.

Which is why she’s surprised when he springs her with: “We should go on a proper date tonight, like to a fancy restaurant,” not long after she’s just arrived at the motel and they’ve kissed each other in greeting.

MJ pauses where she was changing out of her regular socks into thicker, fluffier ones in preparation for a quiet night in the way they do on most Fridays of their Aurora weekends because there’s not much open in the small town by the time they get here.

She flops onto the bed, landing back first then just laying there spread eagle for a moment. “Is there even a fancy restaurant here? We’ve seen most of—no, _all of,_ Aurora at this point and that diner is the only restaurant in this town.”

“I—I don’t know, let me Google it?” Peter stutters momentarily then immediately recovers and walks round to grab his phone from the table near the door.

For as much as he loves grand plans (think- the Black Dahlia necklace and a confession of feelings at the top of the Eiffel Tower type grand plans), Peter can also be impulsive, acting fast based on feelings and instincts alone. MJ suspects it’s a side effect of being Spider-Man, something that’s so unpredictable that most of the time he just wings it per his own admission. He usually reserves the spontaneity and impulsiveness for his superhero gig exclusively but sometimes, like right now, he likes to be spontaneous where she’s concerned. That kind of almost-callousness is a nice balance to MJ’s own more careful self; a Yin and Yang of sorts.

MJ is brought out of her thoughts by Peter flopping onto the bed next to her, forcing her to bring her limbs back to her midline to create room for him to lie down without laying on parts of her. He sighs dejectedly, “There’s no fancy restaurant in Aurora. But we could go to Grand Island nearby, it’s way bigger and would have way more restaurant options.”

“With what money, Peter?” She’s not purposefully trying to be a killjoy or trying to shoot down all of her boyfriend’s ideas but these Aurora weekends away only work for the two of them – two working class kids attending college on scholarships – through careful budgeting, taking a trip to another city to go to a pricier restaurant doesn’t fit into that budget.

Peter sighs once more, sounding so defeated that it causes MJ to turn sideways and reach a hand out to stroke the angle of his jaw soothingly.

After a moment where Peter allows her to comfort him, he suddenly springs up from the bed. “I have an idea!”

He’s already rushing to put his sneakers and hoodie and denim jacket (one he borrowed from her months ago and never gave back) on before MJ can question him about what his idea is. He continues gathering his phone, motel keys and wallet wordlessly and almost leaves without saying a word before he pauses by the door then turns back to look at her. “I’ll be back in half an hour. I’m gonna get you a fancy dinner so you should get ready whilst I’m gone.” He then opens the door and steps over the threshold. “Love you, bye!” Then he’s gone, the door slamming closed behind him.

MJ watches the closed door where he once stood with eyes narrowed suspiciously. What the hell is he up to? She shakes her head in bemused disbelief then gets up to get ready as he’d instructed. He’s ridiculous.

MJ takes a nice, long hot shower making use of the body scrub Mia her roommate had given her which she’d in turn received as a gift from her now-ex. By the time she’s done thirty five minutes have gone past and of course Peter is late.

She considers just changing into her pajamas but this whole fancy date idea seemed really important to Peter so she instead opts for her black jeans and her least wrinkled t-shirt—it’s as close as she can get to “fancy” with the selection of clothes she’d brought to Nebraska with her.

She has just finished combing her hair and slipping on her stud earrings when Peter walks back into their room.

“Hi,” he says with a small grin. “You look nice.”

“I’m wearing the same thing I always wear, Peter,” she scoffs exasperatedly.

“Yeah but you wear it well,” he says with an easy shrug. He’s ridiculous.

MJ bites her lip to stifle a grin because she absolutely should not encourage this type of thing. “So, about this fancy date…”

“Could you go into the bathroom for just like, two minutes? I’ll tell you when you can come back in.”

MJ eyes him, half-curious and half-unimpressed.

“Please, Em?” Peter tries again.

She makes a show of pretending to be annoyed but turns to go to the bathroom all the same where she waits for what she estimates to be about four and a half minutes before Peter calls out for her to come back into the bedroom area.

When she walks out into the bedroom she’s met by the sight of the small table having been set up with two scented candles, and burgers and fries from the local diner – _their_ diner – dished out onto paper plates. She feels her eyes water because God, she loves him so much.

“Mademoiselle,” Peter says in an awful French accent gesturing for her to come and take a seat.

“You’re awful at accents,” she teases as she takes the seat he holds out for her.

Once she’s in her seat he walks round to settle in his own and just watches her happily, goofy grin plastered on his face. And because MJ can’t help it she leans over the table, lifting off the seat slightly, and presses a kiss against his lips then she mumbles a quiet “I love you,” against his lips after she pulls away minutely.

“I love you too,” He says automatically like the words just naturally come to him without having to think about it, like it’s second nature, part of his identity to love her just like being Peter Parker and being Spider-Man is. She can relate.

MJ finally settles back in her seat and digs into her food just as Peter does the same. There’s so much of, too much, that MJ worries about how much he must have spent on this. “How much did this cost you? I’ll pay you back half.”

“No Michelle.”

“Peter—”

He interrupts her, “It’s okay, really. Eleanora snuck most of this to me for free when I told her it was to woo you.”

“Eleanora is ridiculous. You’re ridiculous,” she says, rolling her eyes at him.

He just grins at her then the two go back to eating their dinner, catching up on everything that’s happened in the past two days since they last facetimed and had a proper conversation uninterrupted. Peter catches her up on how a few of the Aurora locals they’re coming to get to know quite well that he saw whilst he was at the diner are doing. It’s nice, just getting to relax and talk about things that are meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

When they finish eating they stay there at the table just talking about everything and nothing, the scented candles burning away. Eventually after hours have passed and the candles are nearly all burnt out, Peter gathers up their trash and runs outside to throw it in a trashcan outside so their room doesn’t smell of grease and fast food the whole weekend.

“I’m tired,” MJ says to Peter when he gets back, trying to muffle her yawn.

“Wait, wait, wait. The date isn’t over yet.”

“Peter,” MJ says, fully unimpressed this time. She just wants to get into the motel bed with its weird, slightly uncomfortable lumpy mattress and be cuddled up with her boyfriend and have the best sleep she’s had since the last time the two of them where in the same place.

He grabs hold of her hand and pulls her up from her chair, MJ allowing him to drag her up to his chest before he wraps his arms securely around his waist to keep her in place.

“Just this one more thing, then we can go to bed. Please?”

She can never say no to him. “Okay, fine.”

“Yes!” He mutters victoriously then he guides them away from the table to the bit of free floor space in the room.

He momentarily takes a hand away from her waist and uses it to fish his phone out of his pocket then he starts playing a song that a couple of seconds into it MJ recognises as ‘ _Someone Like You_ ' by Snoh Aalegra, which makes her smile because she remembers how she’d sent him the song for him to listen to because there was nothing Peter Parker loved more than love songs, and there was nothing she loved more than Peter Parker.

He throws his phone the short distance onto the bed then wraps his arms around her waist once again. “No fancy date is complete without a slow dance. Or so I’ve heard.”

“Hm, I don’t think that’s true,” she teases but she brings her arms up to wrap around his neck all the same.

The two start swaying in place slowly, no skilful or technical dancing, to the beat of the song. Peter moves his head so it rests on her shoulder and he can do it comfortably due to her having a couple of inches on him.

MJ rests her head on top of Peter’s and closes her eyes as she breathes in the scent of his conditioner and allows herself to bask in Peter’s embrace and affection. Naturally, out of their own accord, their breathing falls into sync so they’re just swaying in place, bodies pressed closely together from chest to hips.

She’s so lost in the feel of him, the warmth radiating off his body that warms her own in turn, that she doesn't even comment on it when his hands drift down so they rest over her ass instead of her waist where they resided before.

When the song ends they continue to sway to nothing but the sound of their synchronous breathing and it’s _nice_. She feels so safe and so adored.

She has no idea how long they stay like that, swaying to the rhythm of nothing but eventually they do pull apart. Peter presses a slow, exploratory kiss that makes her feel just as breathless as she did the first time they kissed on Tower Bridge years ago.

He presses one final chaste kiss to her lips then takes a step back away from her, “Let’s go to bed, Em.”

She changes out of her “fancy” clothes into her pajamas whilst Peter brushes his teeth and washes his face, then when he’s done they swap around so he’s in the bedroom changing into his pajamas whilst she brushes her teeth.

They meet up again in bed where they both shuffle into the center to be as close to each other as possible. They lie there with Peter on his back whilst MJ rests her head on his chest, listening to his scarily slow heartbeat (it’d freaked her out the first time she heard just how slow it is before he explained it’s normal for him, likely another side effect of the radioactive spider bite thing).

They lie there in silence in the darkness, slowly starting to fall asleep before MJ interrupts, “What was the fancy date for?” And not that Peter doesn’t do thoughtful things on a whim just because he feels like it, but his insistence had meaning behind it and she knows him well.

“It’s the 18-month anniversary of our first date—our first date after I was cleared of all charges with Mysterio and stuff that is.” A pause. “Well, technically it’ll be the anniversary in three weeks’ time when you’re at Stanford and I’m at MIT so I thought might as well celebrate it now whilst we’re, y’know, in the same state.”

MJ’s glad they’re currently cloaked in darkness so he doesn’t see the tears that roll down her cheeks because then he’d think he’d done something wrong when the complete opposite is true. She has no idea how she got so lucky to have her long-time crush like her back then be the sweetest, most thoughtful boyfriend ever.

She brings a hand up to quickly, furiously, wipe away her tears then when she feels like her face is dry enough to not concern Peter she blindly feels for his face and mouth then kisses him a languid kiss that she hopes communicates all the feelings within her that she could never adequately express verbally despite her extensive vocabulary.

When air becomes a necessity she pulls away and whispers, “I love you.” And she does, _so much_.

* * *

**_year 2, semester 2_ **

The small bell above the door chimes as Peter and MJ walk hand-in-hand into the diner. The quiet of the diner is interrupted when Eleanora spots the pair of them, coming around the counter so she can greet them.

“My favorite couple!” she exclaims excitedly before she wraps them both up in a tight hug. “I’m always telling my customers about you two, you know. The young lovers who are gonna save the world someday,” Eleanora says giddily once she pulls away and goes to stand behind the counter once again.

MJ smiles politely, unsure of what she can say to that. Fortunately for her Peter is more sociable and navigates things like this with more ease—something which always makes MJ wish they went to the same college (among other reasons), because she’d bet all the college parties Mia drags her to would be way more fun or at the very least bearable with him around—and he responds for them.

“You flatter us, ma’am,” Peter responds with a sweet smile.

““ _Ma’am_ ””, can you believe this guy?" Eleanora says looking to MJ with amusement dancing in her eyes. Her gaze shifts back to Peter, “I’ve told you, you can call me Eleanora, Peter.”

“Sorry, Eleanora,” he replies sheepishly.

Eleanora keeps grinning at the young couple for a stretch of time then finally, “Okay, what can I get you young lovebirds tonight?”

They take turns ordering their meals, though as they often do they’ll likely end up just sharing everything between them anyway, and Eleanora promises that it’ll all be ready soon before they go to sit in the corner booth that’s now theirs because it’s where they always sit whenever they come to Eleanora’s.

It’s quite late on Friday night, the pair having taken later flights out after their last finals finished, meaning Eleanora and her husband who is the cook are the only staff members who remain in the diner (Eleanora always sends her staff home early at the weekends so they can actually enjoy the weekend) so their food might take some time but neither her nor Peter really mind. They use the time whilst they wait for the food to catch up and Peter tells the story of how they’d been a medical emergency and a doctor on-board stepped up to save the person’s life; “doctors, nurses, firemen, those are the real heroes” he tells her.

MJ listens to him speak intently from her seat directly opposite him, running the side of her foot up and down his calf periodically as she does so.

MJ is in the middle of showing Peter a meme she’d found earlier today that reminded her of him on her phone when Eleanora suddenly appears at their booth. “Here you go lovebirds,” she announces, placing their food and the large glass of milkshake for them to share along with two paper straws down on the table.

They’re both so hungry and so tired that they eat their food in relative silence bar the occasional “Can you pass me the ketchup?”

When they finish their food they say their goodbyes to Eleanora and her husband then make their way back to the Motel.

“I’m too tired to walk,” MJ grumbles as soon as they step foot outside the diner, half-joking.

And Peter being Peter, the ridiculous boy he is, reaches down to pick her up and carry her on his back.

“Peter, oh My God,” MJ says, mortified. Yes, she’s more open to being publicly affectionate with him here in Aurora but this feels like a step too far.

“Yes dear?” Peter asks in a goofy tone, already having started walking in the direction of their motel.

“You’re outing yourself as Spider-Man, you know?”

“How’s that, MJ?” He doesn’t put her down and carries on.

“Someone of your stature shouldn’t be able to carry me with this kind of ease.”

“Short jokes, is it?” he deadpans, feigning annoyance.

“I’m trying to protect your secret identity,” she says with faux-innocence. She wraps her arms tighter around his shoulders to get comfortable when she comes to terms with the fact that Peter isn’t going to put her down and she just has to put up with her boyfriend giving her a piggyback ride for the ten minute walk back to their motel.

“It’s nearly 10pm, no one is out at this time here,” he says with a shrug she feels.

“I still firmly believe everyone goes to some secret underground club or something that we don’t know about because there is just no other explanation for how this town is basically dead after 9pm, on a Friday night no less.” Having grown up in New York, a city quite literally nicknamed for its constant buzz and vibrant life, the pair had been freaked out (and still are) by how eerily empty and quiet Aurora got after 9pm.

“This is only our fourth time here, maybe after our fifth stay Eleanora or maybe Alicia will tell us about the secret club.”

“One of them will hand us an unmarked envelope which will contain a single, nonsensical word that is the password to the secret club,” MJ says carrying on the ridiculous bit.

“The password will only get us to the location of the club, we have to retrieve another password to be able to actually get in.”

“The password to enter the club is probably hidden at the center of the Plainsman Museum, we’d have to break in after hours to get to it.”

When they reach the door to their motel room Peter finally puts her down on the ground at smiles at her. “You really commit to a bit.”

“As do you, the best scene partner ever,” she says and her words are entirely too fond but she’s feeling too tired and soft to care and just lets them slip.

They go into their room after MJ unlocks the door and the pair take turns showering and changing into their pajamas before settling in bed with the latest David Attenborough documentary MJ has been looking forward to watching for weeks playing on the TV where Peter has figured out a way to hook his laptop up to it. Finals had prevented her from watching it all along so she’s excited to finally see it.

They’re cuddled up in bed, on top of the sheets because it’s too warm, watching the documentary for all of twelve minutes before Peter’s hands start to wander. To start off with, his movements are mostly innocent, his hands just gently caressing her curves over her pajamas applying very little pressure.

As time passes though, his touch becomes less leisurely and more purposeful, his hands focusing on the areas he knows she’s most sensitive even over the material of her pajamas. So MJ can’t be blamed when she reacts, unintentionally, to his touch her body arching more into his to give him better access to touch her.

Feeling emboldened by her reactions, Peter sneaks his hand underneath the hem of her sleep t-shirt and roves his hand gently over the soft skin he finds beneath. He escalates things further when he uses the other hand not currently underneath her shirt to pull the neckline of the oversized t-shirt down to expose her neck and as much of her shoulder closest to him as he can manage then he starts trailing open mouthed kisses along it, working his way up from her shoulder joint up to her ear where he peppers kisses and gently bites into it.

“Peter,” MJ pants out; she’s not sure if she’s trying to encourage or discourage him herself.

He just hums wordlessly as his hand that was caressing the skin of her stomach moves up to knead at her breasts.

“Peter, you always do this,” she finally gets out when she finds her voice and has gotten her breathing under control.

“We can carry on watching the documentary after, it’s okay.”

“You always say that, too.” Her mouth says one thing but her traitorous body inches closer to him and her legs widen an inch, a subtle signal to Peter.

“I’ll stop if you don’t want to.”

“I really want to have sex,” she admits with a shaky exhale—Peter has increased the pace of his movements over her breasts.

At her words his hand snakes down her torso to head to the waistband of her pajamas but he stops in his tracks when MJ carries on speaking, “ _But_ , I also really wanna watch this documentary. I’ve been waiting weeks to watch it.”

“Okay, stopping. I’m stopping,” he finally relents.

He goes to pull his hand away but MJ catches his wrist to stop him. “What if—” She pauses, hesitates, “What if I carried on watching my documentary whilst you, um, whilst you… _carry on_.”

It takes a moment where Peter watches her curiously before something finally clicks in his head, she assumes he remembers how she’d told him her fantasy of someone getting her off whilst she just carries on with her business—getting off whilst she draws or reads were the main ones she’d mentioned, but this falls into that realm.

“Yeah, yeah I can do that!” Peter agrees, excitedly nodding his head.

He wastes no time shuffling down the bed and pulling her pajama pants down her body with MJ lifting her hips up to assist him, but otherwise her attention remains focused on the TV screen at the fight club of sorts starting to form between the polar bears as they wait until they can officially start hunting their prey seal.

As Peter starts kissing up her legs, taking his time to get her worked up so she’s completely ready for him by the time he reaches her center, MJ focuses on the building tensions between the impatient polar bears.

At the same time Peter finally reaches her center, licking an experimental stripe along her slit, a fight breaks out on the TV screen.

“Fuck,” MJ breathes out harshly and she wants to pretend it’s in horror at the animalistic violence she sees on the TV but it’s more at the almost-animalistic way Peter starts to work her over. He brings both her legs to rest over his shoulders for ease and moves one hand to her lower stomach to help pull away her clitoral hood then he works at her, swirling dizzying patterns using his tongue.

MJ groans lowly, head falling backwards and eyes falling shut as her hips press into his face at their own accord but that seems to displease Peter who stops. Then: “You have to keep watching the documentary, remember?”

There is a challenging lilt to his voice that makes MJ grab another pillow to pile on top of the two currently underneath her head to allow her to prop her head up so she can continue watching the screen.

Only then does Peter resume his previous actions, concentrating mostly at her clit but tongue also occasionally laving down and probing lower in a way that causes MJ to clench her thighs around his head applying the slightest pressure. She’d be embarrassed at how she almost crushes his head but one: she always responds to Peter going down on her like this, so he’s likely used to it, and two: Peter seems to enjoy it, humming pleasantly in response every time she squeezes her thighs around his head which in turn sends vibrations along her clit which only causes her to squeeze even harder.

At this point she’s barely focusing on the polar bears trying to hunt seals, vision blurry and hazy with pleasure as Peter continues to work her over.

She reaches her peak, back bowing off the bed just as the music of the documentary swells triumphantly when the polar bears manage to catch a seal. Peter continues gently lapping at her, allowing her to ride through her orgasm and MJ finally gives up on pretending to concentrate on whatever is happening on the screen, letting her head collapse back and her eyes fall shut.

She may momentarily black out, she’s not entirely sure, but when she opens her eyes and re-orientates herself she finds Peter lying with his head leaning on his elbow watching her with a satisfied smirk.

“So was it me or David Attenborough that made you come?”

She rolls her eyes fondly. “You know you can’t compete David Attenborough.”

He sighs faux-dejectedly, feigning disappointment. “Maybe one day.”

“Never.” She takes a moment to fully catch her breath. “But that’s okay,” she finally says as she reaches a hand down to sneak beneath the waistband of Peter’s pajama pants.

* * *

**_year 3, semester 1_ **

Since she was a college freshman MJ had heard horror stories about junior year and how difficult it was and whilst she didn’t doubt it, she also always felt like the horror stories were exaggerated for the purpose of scaring freshmen and sophomores; it wouldn’t be the first thing the more senior college students lied about just to freak out those younger than them.

But now she’s two months into her own junior year she realises though there were slight embellishments to the tales older students had told of junior year, it’s still pretty horrific and stressful.

She has an essay due for her _Democracy, Development and Rule for Law_ major along with a piece of art of any medium of her choosing inspired by a Latin American artist along with an attached small report on said artist for her _Art Practice_ minor both due on the Monday.

She’s so stressed out that part of her had considered just cancelling the trip and taking the brunt of the cost of the last minute flight cancellation if it meant she could stay on campus and focus on her two assignments. But then she’d remembered the promise her and Peter had made to each other – pinkies linked and faces inches apart so their breaths intermingled as they whispered their promise to the other – that _no matter what_ they’d meet up in Aurora.

MJ tries to squeeze as much work on her assignments as she can during the week in the lead up to her weekend away. But between classes and her part-time job in the campus library, and volunteering at the local California branch of the homeless shelter May helped spearhead post-blip a few years back now, she just didn’t have as much time as she’d hoped to do as much as is possible.

So she carries the niggling guilt about how she needs to finish both projects with her as she goes through the motions of landing in Nebraska 45 minutes after Peter then getting a cab with Dave with the pink fluffy steering wheel cover, walking past and waving at Alicia at the motel front desk before knocking on the same motel room door they’ve stayed over the last two years to be met by the bright smiley figure on the other side.

MJ tries to force herself to relax, reassuring herself that she can make up the work on Sunday evening then all of Monday if she skips out on the large lectures she has where attendance is non-compulsory to work in the library until the 11:59 deadline.

“What’s wrong?” Peter asks as he pulls away from their kiss hello, almost immediately noticing how tense and off she is.

She clears her throat a few times, rolls her shoulders to force herself to actually relax rather than just thinking about how she needs to relax. “Nothing, just tired.” Peter looks like he’s going to press her more so she carries on, “Let’s go to Eleanora’s I’m starving.”

It’s a clear, cheap, diversion tactic but Peter just lets her lead him by the hand out of the room , pausing to let him lock their room, before dragging him along in the direction of Eleanora’s.

Once they reach the diner and are settled into their usual corner booth after exchanging pleasantries with Eleanora who’d made a show of talking about how smart the pair of them are and what a cute couple they make; Eleanora always teeters close to making an offensive comments about their adorable _multi-racial_ babies with her compliments but so far, to MJ’s relief, she hasn’t.

Again, Peter looks like he wants to say something but MJ works to distract him by asking him to tell her more about the A.I. system he’s been working on with his friend Harry and the upgrades to his webbing he’d offhandedly mentioned during their last Facetime call conversation.

It’s a cheap, dirty trick but it works like a charm as Peter starts chatting animatedly about both projects, gesticulating wildly with his hands as he tells her about how he's applied knowledge taught to him by his late mentor and through learning from KAREN to help him and Harry start building this A.I. system.

He continues to chat animatedly once their food arrives and they begin eating as MJ periodically hums and says “cool” in a way that shows interest to encourage him to carry on speaking but without being uncharacteristically too excited for her at the correct intervals.

She thinks she’s almost gotten away with it, distracting him away from her obvious distress until Peter suddenly speaks up. “Okay MJ, I’ve tried pretending like something isn’t clearly bothering you like you wanted me to but please just talk to me.”

“What makes you think something is wrong, Peter?” And she hasn’t told him about her deadlines and hadn’t mentioned them when the pair spoke during the week not because she’s too afraid to open up to Peter—she’s mostly over her fear of being vulnerable with him over four years into their relationship—it’s more that when Peter had come up with the idea of their Aurora weekends she knows he intended for them to be like a break for the pair away from the stresses of college life and the world outside of Aurora as a whole.

When they’re in Aurora Peter gets to switch off, gets to not stress about balancing school, his part-time job delivering pizza, the research he is assisting Dr Octavius with in his own time just along with his Spider-Man duties and MJ doesn’t want to ruin that small bit of tranquillity he’s able to achieve by bringing up school and breaking the illusion of a haven they’ve created for themselves here.

“Well for one you didn’t freshen up and change out of your plane clothes when you got the hotel, you just made us come here in the same clothes. Also, normally you lie on the bed and grumble about not wanting to move for a solid hour before we make it out of our room to come here. And you’ve not made one comment about how much of a nerd I am the entire time I’ve been talking about computers and the physics of webbing design—that is peak nerd, Em!” He pauses, then much softer and quieter, “Please just tell me what’s wrong. You’re worrying me.”

MJ hesitates, considering what to do: continue to dismiss his concerns and just work harder on relaxing fully, or tell him the truth and ruin the entire weekend.

“Please, Em,” Peter whispers one last time.

And God, she could never deny him anything could she? “I have two big deadlines coming up on Monday and I’m trying to not think about it or stress and ruin our weekend, I really am. I’m sorry I’m no fun.”

“MJ—”

She continues on without letting him respond. “These weekends are just for us and I can’t even switch off for just two nights to just enjoy being with my boyfriend for the first time in _months_. Ugh,” she says, groaning in frustration at herself, at her stupid professors setting work for the same deadline, at the world as a whole.

Peter doesn’t say anything for a beat, then two, then finally he shuffles out of his booth seat and stands at the end of their table and reaches a hand out to her. “Come on, let’s go,” is all he says, making MJ slightly nervous because God, she likely has ruined this hasn’t she?

MJ hesitantly takes his hand and lets him help her out of the booth then keeping her hand in his, he leads them out of the diner and they walk at a brisk pace back to the motel in silence the entire way.

Once they get back to their motel room he finally says something. “I know you wanna change out of your plane clothes and probably shower so I’ll leave you to it, I’ll be right back,” he says, pressing a chaste kiss to her lips before he turns around to head out of the room again leaving MJ to shower and change out of her plane clothes into pajamas.

Peter returns just as she’s coming out of the bathroom and he haphazardly drops a bunch of snacks onto the table near the door then, “I bought you your favorite all-nighter snacks: Doritos, Oreos, Skittles and two bottles of iced coffee.”

“Wh—” MJ goes to question him.

Peter interjects to answer the question before she gets it out, “For fuel, so you can work on your projects tonight.”

“Peter no, I—”

“I know you and I know you won’t be able to relax with the looming deadline hanging over your head so you can just work on it starting now if you want. I don’t mind not having your undivided attention on me and me alone. I’ll live if you ignore me the whole weekend if it means you can get your work done.”

She just looks at him, thinking about how this isn’t what these weekends are for and all the reasons she should say no to this but all her protests die on the tip of her tongue and she instead moves to sit in one of the seats on the table as Peter brings her backpack to her so she can take her laptop out.

He pads to the bed to grab a pillow which he brings over and places behind her on the chair for her to lean on for her comfort before he reaches up to remove his soft, warm sweatshirt he’s wearing to pass it down to her for her to wear. “There,” he says adoringly after he’s looked over the makeshift workstation he’s created for her to ensure it’s up to standard. “I’ll leave you to it so you don’t complain about how I breathe too loudly.”

Just before he walks away to go to the bathroom to shower, she wraps a hand around his wrist to stop him. “Thank you, I’ll make it up to you I promise,” she says before pulling his hand towards her to press a gentle kiss against the back of it.

Peter just smiles down at her, moving the hand that she’s holding so he can briefly stroke her cheek then he lets her go and goes to the bathroom. MJ hears the sound of the motel shower with its shitty pressure turning on as she opens up the document with her essay to figure out where she’d left off.

She’s so engrossed in her work and is on a roll that she doesn’t really keep track of how much time passes, just focused on her work. Peter periodically comes over to the table to press a kiss to her forehead and whisper small words of encouragement but the rest of the time he’s on the bed typing away – likely doing some work for Dr Octavius – on his own laptop.

The only sounds in the room are those of the two working on their computers and though it’s not properly spending time with each other the way they usually do when they meet up here, it’s nice to be have that awareness that he’s in the room with her whilst she works on her essay. It’s oddly comforting and domestic, in a way that being in a dingy motel room in the middle of nowhere shouldn’t be, to just be able to be in the same room whilst they each do their own thing.

That drives MJ to keep working and she manages to finish both her essay and the written report for her artwork (she had already finished the actual art piece, it was just the report that remained) but she hadn’t realised how much time had passed because when she looks up from her laptop after saving both documents so she can revisit for a final round of editing before submission there’s a hint of daylight peeking out from the gap in the blinds and Peter is now beneath the covers asleep.

She shuts off her laptop and grabs the pillow she was using as a back rest then quietly makes her way into bed, lying on the edge instead of going to the center so she doesn’t wake Peter up. But Peter, as if sensing that she’s close by even when asleep, reaches his arms out to come and wrap around her waist then he pulls her into the center of the bed where she usually sleeps so she’s pressed right against his front. He’s warm and soft in all the ways she loves and she allows herself to sink into his hold and let her exhaustion from a day of classes then travelling then completing two major assignments catch up to her.

Just before she lets her eyes droop close and sleep overcome her, Peter whispers out, “Did you finish your essays?”

Without turning to face him she responds. “Yeah, thanks to those snacks,” she says it in a matching whisper.

“Mhm,” he hums, shuffling impossibly closer to her and burrowing his head into the back of her neck to press a kiss to the skin he finds there. “I think Larry was judging my dietary choices as he rung me up.”

“This wouldn’t be the first time Larry has judged you for your eating habits based on your purchases.”

“True.”

“Larry loves me.”

“Everyone in this town loves you, Em.” There’s a stretch of silence where she thinks maybe he’s fallen back asleep before he speaks up again, though this time his voice is barely audible and he sounds like maybe he’d fallen asleep then woken up just to say this one more thing. “Hey, what if—” A yawn. “What if we moved here after we graduate college? That’s probably dumb, right? But…I don’t know…” The rest of his words gradually die down as he finally falls back asleep.

MJ for her part stays awake for a moment considering his words. It _is_ dumb. This town is in the middle of nowhere and neither of them would be happy here, MJ wouldn’t be able to do the kind of work she wants to do and Peter wouldn’t be able to be Spider-Man given the distinct lack of skyscrapers here (plus people would quite quickly figure out Spider-Man’s secret identity if Spider-Man suddenly started appearing in Aurora Nebraska after a young couple from out of town moved here). The plan had always been for them to move back to New York and try to get an apartment together then for Peter to start his Elementary teaching training whilst she went to Law School.

They can’t do that in Aurora, she knows that but she does get to thinking. As she falls asleep in the early hours of the morning she thinks about the significance of Aurora to them and their relationship and how she doesn’t want to just forget this place and never come back after they graduate, it just doesn’t feel right.

* * *

**_year 3, semester 2_ **

MJ sinks down onto Peter painstakingly slowly, doing it for her own bemusement because Peter swears it’s like torture. Once she’s fully seated on him she begins to move equally slowly, supporting her weight on his muscular thighs and pushing off them as she moves for leverage.

Peter groans distinctively, his hands coming up so one rests on her waist whilst the other palms her ass before squeezing tightly, likely in warning that he doesn’t like the little game she’s playing with him.

MJ had essentially jumped him upon arriving at the motel after Dave had dropped her off, too excitable and horny off the high of passing all her finals with grades of 90%+ including the classes that had kicked her ass all year that she genuinely thought she was going to fail. But now she gets a kick out of teasing Peter, his barely restrained reactions – she can tell he’s having to restrain himself from just grabbing her and flipping her over – turning her on even more.

There’s the sound of one of the rickety mattress springs followed by another groan from Peter, though this one sounds way more pained than the previous one. MJ pauses her movements where she’d been riding him in the reverse cowgirl position so she can turn to eye him incredulously because he’s being a little dramatic but when she looks at him his face is contorted in genuine discomfort.

“I’m pretty sure there’s a bed spring digging into my back,” Peter pants, and she notes how red and sweaty his face is likely from the effort he’s exerted trying to be patient and let her have her way with him.

Before MJ can respond he’s shifting sideways across the mattress with them still connected jostling MJ which causes her to whimper at the movement.

“You good?” she asks once he’s settled more comfortably on the mattress, seeing that there is indeed a mattress spring poking out of the old mattress at the exact spot Peter had been laying. Okay, so maybe _not a_ drama queen.

“Yeah, yeah I’m good. Please, carry on,” he says breathlessly, settling more comfortably into the pillows behind his head .

MJ starts moving again, keeping her pace just as tortuous as before much to Peter’s frustration who groans impatiently.

She’s able to keep it up for a few more minutes before he grows far too impatient and widens his legs to give him leverage to start thrusting up into her as well but MJ leans forward and rests her hands on his thighs to stop him. “The whole point of this was you don’t move, Peter.”

“Can we at least switch positions?” He pleads.

“You’re not going on top.”

“Fine with me,” he huffs as he lifts her off him with firm hands placed on her hips, making MJ moan at the loss of contact.

Using his impressive strength he moves the both of them around until he’s sat on the edge of the bed with his feet planted on the floor and her astride him on his lap with her feet dangling over the edge of the mattress before she can so much as blink.

Just as quickly he shifts her so he’s nudging at her entrance and waits for her to take him own at her own pace, which she does though this time she takes some pity on him and increases the pace of her movements slightly.

“You’re killing me, MJ,” Peter complains, face red and a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead at the control he’s having to exert to just let MJ dictate everything.

“I know,” MJ says with a pleased smirk, one of her hands that was resting on his shoulder moving down to wrap around his forearm where he’s fisting the sheet beneath them. Once she has a hold of him she tugs at his arm to bring his hand to her chest. “You can touch me,” she breathes out.

Peter responds eagerly, lifting his other hand up so he can knead over both her breasts whilst MJ uses the strength of her thighs along with his steady shoulders to lift herself up and down on him with the occasional roll of hips.

When he arches forward to start laving at the dusky skin of her breasts MJ starts to lose the pace she’d set before, her movements becoming rhythmless and bordering on erratic.

“Please, I just need—” Peter pants out, unable to articulate exactly what he wants.

But he doesn’t need to because MJ knows, and her thighs are starting to burn for the effort she’s exerted anyway. As fun as it was to torture Peter the way she’s been doing, she does not have the muscular strength in her thighs to keep this up. “Okay, go,” she says, nodding to give him permission.

In one easy move Peter lifts her off him to sit her on the bed beside him. He pauses to take a deep breath then before she knows it he’s sinking down to kneel on the floor facing the bed then he drags her down to join him on the floor, turning her around so she’s now kneeling over him also facing the bed.

“Is this okay,” he asks, tip gliding at her slick entrance as he waits.

“Yeah,” is all she can manage before in one swift movement he’s bottomed out in her. MJ falls forward and presses her elbows into the mattress, trying her best to stabilise herself to stop herself toppling forward face-down completely.

Peter starts to move, his pace impatient, as he peppers open-mouthed kisses to her shoulders and the back of her neck; MJ tries not to think about how much sweat has likely gathered at the back of her neck where he has his face buried.

Impossibly, he increases the pace of his movements, using the strength of his thighs to drive into her more forcefully. Before MJ’s entire upper body collapses forward onto the mattress, Peter wraps a firm arm around her waist to hold her up then his other arm comes up to grip her chin roughly and turn her back to face him before he kisses her, an open-mouthed, filthy kiss that makes her whimper.

MJ moves a hand up from where it was gripping the edge of the mattress in front of her and sloppily grabs Peter’s face so she can keep kissing him, the movement has the added bonus of helping to steady her which then allows Peter to snake the hand that had been angling her lips towards his down and around her front to press against her clit which ends up being MJ’s undoing.

This time when she collapses forward from the force of her orgasm, Peter doesn’t hold her up and allows her to fall forward to rest her head on the mattress. He leans forward to press against her back as he carries on moving, chasing his own release and he manages to finish and drag MJ along with him into her second orgasm for the night.

For the rest of the night Peter racks her count up from two in various positions all over their small motel room: with her lying on her front with her face pressed into the mattress and him draped over her thrusting into her slow and deep, with her back against their motel door and her legs around his waist as he holds up all her weight and drives her into their door, with her bent over the small table near the door as his hands greedily palm over every part of her then finally with him on his back on the bed humming approvingly as she rides his face.

They shower together then work together to flip the mattress over so they can avoid the spring poking through – Peter does the actual work whilst MJ stands and watches him work – before collapsing in a bundle in the center of the bed, satiated and exhausted.

They wake up mid-morning with plans to go for breakfast at Eleanora’s but they first have to go the front desk to report the mattress and see if there’s any way they can get a replacement since the current one is likely a hazard.

The two are even more affectionate than usual as they make their way round to the small front office, MJ letting Peter drag her along by their adjoined hands as joy floods and pulses through her along with the pleasant ache between her legs.

Peter moves the hand that was previously holding hers to come and wrap around her waist to guide her into the office whilst his other hand holds the door open for them.

There’s a middle aged couple already waiting by the desk whilst Alicia holds a phone receiver to her ear, the trio stood in a terse silence.

“It’s ringing, my manager should hopefully answer,” Alicia mumbles to the couple who watch her with arms crossed impatiently.

There’s a beat of silence as they all wait for Alicia’s boss to answer the phone.

Then: “So, what exactly am I telling her is the issue again?” Alicia asks, pulling the phone receiver away from her ear momentarily.

The couple huffs, affronted at having to explain themselves again evidently. “There were people—no, _animals_ —in the room next to ours, making obscene and frankly vulgar sounds all night last night!” The woman is the one who speaks, voice rising in volume and pitch as she speaks, getting angrier with each word. “We’re God fearing people miss, we should not be subjected to such—such—” She gets too worked up to even finish her sentence.

Peter and MJ turn to face each other, eyes wide in shock but with a hint of amusement dancing in the pits of both their eyes. MJ can see the way a red hue is rising in Peter’s cheeks, clearly embarrassed.

He’s guiding her out of the office the way they came in with the arm still wrapped around her waist instantly.

“Oh my God! Oh my God!” He exclaims once they’re out of the office and away from the couple who were apparently staying in the room next door to theirs.

“You’re an _animal_ , Pete,” MJ teases, causing the redness of his cheeks to intensify.

“Shut up, this is your fault.”

“You didn’t mind it, you encouraged it if I remember correctly. What was it you said again? “ _I want you to scream—””_ her words are muffled by Peter’s hand coming to cover her mouth to stop her finishing quoting the words he’d rasped into her ear during round two.

“Shut up,” he warns but there’s a smile threatening to break out on his face. “C’mon,” he says, finally pulling his hand away from her mouth and wrapping his other hand around hers and dragging her along as they head in the direction of Eleanora’s.

MJ continues to tease him as they almost-jog away from the motel, giggling every time he huffs at her and has to bite back a smile. She feels youthful, carefree and elated running hand-in-hand in fits of giggles with her boyfriend to escape and hide away from their motel neighbours.

They settle into their usual corner booth after briefly greeting Eleanora and the pair are still in fits of laughter over the events of the morning, MJ hiccupping out laughs and clutching at her stomach when Peter very seriously asks how they’re going to get back to their room without being spotted by the couple they kept up.

She’s amused by the whole situation whilst he seems to be embarrassed and honestly scared to run into the older couple again and have them figure out they’re the animals they were complaining about. It’s ridiculous. He’s ridiculous.

* * *

**_year 4, semester 1_ **

At this point, there is a definitive routine to how these Aurora visits go: MJ flies to Central Nebraska Regional airport (and always lands up to an hour and a half later than Peter because of how flights out of their respective airports run so he’s the one waiting for her for once), she catches a cab to the motel driven by Dave and his pink fluffy steering wheel cover, she stops by the front desk to say a quick hi to Alicia in greeting (they don’t spend minutes chatting and catching up on their lives since the last time MJ was in Aurora or anything, but it’s a step up from the polite nods they started off with) then MJ rushes to get to Peter then her and Peter spend their weekend in the small town dividing up their time between their room, Eleanora’s eponymous diner where they consume far too much cholesterol and sugar in between Eleanora’s gushing about how adorable they are, Larry’s grocery store, along with the other local stores and museums.

The first sign MJ gets that things may be wrong, is when upon taking her phone off airplane mode when she lands in Nebraska there isn’t a text from Peter—contact name: Arachnid-Boy <3 (he’d changed it from Bug Boy on the grounds of scientific accuracy) – waiting for her to let her know he’s at the motel waiting for her. It’s unusual for Peter, but she tries not to think too much of it.

The next sign is when she finds Dave’s cab waiting for her at the front of the airport but instead of Dave, she finds a younger man waiting who introduces himself as Tom and explains to her that Dave is his uncle and is away on vacation so he’s driving his cab in the meantime. MJ is further unsettled when she sees that Tom has removed Dave’s usual fluffy pink steering wheel cover and the steering wheel is now bare, it looks weird and almost naked. MJ doesn’t think much of it though, focusing on how it’s not long until she can see Peter as the cab pulls away from the airport in the direction of Aurora.

The journey goes without a hitch, being even shorter than when Dave drives her likely because of how slowly Dave tends to drive. MJ hands cash to Tom then offers him a polite smile and wave before stepping out the cab and heading for the front desk.

She briefly greets Alicia, and this time Alicia tells her about how she’s now the manager for the motel sounding the most excited the apathetic older woman has ever sounded in the time MJ has been coming here (Alicia takes apathetic and indifferent to a whole new level that’s beyond even MJ). In turn, MJ tells her about the internship at a law clinic that does pro-bono work for people that can’t afford lawyers that she landed.

MJ is about to bid the other woman farewell and get going when Alicia stops her. “Here are your keys,” she says, sliding the keys across the desk to MJ. MJ looks down curiously at the keys so Alicia explains, “Your little boyfriend isn’t here yet.”

And that feeling of things not being right that MJ had previously dismissed when she didn’t have a text from Peter waiting for her upon her arrival returns again. Peter _always_ arrives before her.

She clears her throat, shakes her head free of her thoughts and recomposes herself before reaching down to grab the keys. “Thanks Alicia!” she says, giving the other woman a polite wave before she walks out of the office and heads to the same room her and Peter always stay in.

She has to jiggle the key a few times to get the door open, then when she steps foot into the room she calls out, “Peter?” She gets no answer, obviously, but a small part of her had hoped that he was actually here and this was all part of some elaborate, romantic surprise he had in store for her because she doesn’t like the alternative explanation for why he didn’t text her and why he isn’t here at all, not one bit.

Sighing, she walks the rest of the way into the room placing her backpack on the ground before collapsing onto the mattress. Though the old one had been replaced since their last visit because of the old springs poking out, this one still feels just as lumpy and uncomfortable as the old one.

MJ then fishes her phone out of her pocket then dials the first number from her recent calls, closing her eyes as she presses it to her ear to wait for it to ring. Instantly his phone goes to voicemail, with Peter’s excitable voice ringing out as he says hello and sorry in various languages before informing whoever is calling to try again in an hour when he’s free. His voice usually soothes her, warms her from the inside out, but here in the empty and dark motel room it feels almost taunting.

After the tone indicating she can leave her voice message beeps she speaks, “Hey dork, I’m here. Where are you? Please just let me know you’re okay, okay? Love you.”

After she hangs up MJ distracts herself by watching a few episodes of ‘ _The Good Place_ ’, reading a bit of her novel, and intermittently texting and calling Peter to no response. She also calls May who tells her she hasn’t heard from Peter at all today, the last exchange they’d had being Peter telling her about how he was coming down to Aurora to meet her for the weekend so wouldn’t pick up his phone or answer his texts until he was back in Cambridge on Sunday.

She considers going to Eleanora’s to grab a bite, maybe not being in this room alone waiting for Peter and driving herself stir-crazy will distract her, but she doesn’t want to leave and miss his arrival so she dismisses the idea and carries on trying to distract herself with mindless tasks.

Eventually when hours have passed, she drags herself out of the uncomfortable bed which somehow feels even more uncomfortable when she is in it alone, the springs digging uncomfortably into her back, and goes to shower and change out of the plane clothes she hadn’t bothered to change out of when she first arrived the way she usually does.

When she’s changed into her pajamas she climbs back into bed and goes back to watching _‘The Good Place’_ on her laptop (she doesn’t know how Peter usually hooks it up to the TV) to keep waiting for him.

She’s four episodes in, fighting to keep her eyes open so she can wait for Peter when the aforementioned boy finally stumbles in through the door she’d left unlocked for him just in case she fell asleep whilst waiting.

Immediately MJ notes that he’s limping, and how though he’s wearing sweatpants and a zip-up hoodie he’s wearing his Spider-Man suit underneath his clothes.

“Hey, Em. Flight delays, huh?” He tries to joke, but almost instantly after his failed attempt at being light-hearted he collapses onto the bed, unable to keep holding himself up.

It’s then that MJ sees the blood seeping onto his hoodie. “Peter, oh my God.” She quickly jumps out of bed, rushing to the cupboard and digging to the very back of it to find the first aid kit she’d hid in there their very first time here just in case of emergency, she didn’t think that they’d actually need it but thought it best to keep one anyway given her boyfriend’s penchant for getting into trouble.

“Come on,” she huffs, trying her best to drag his dead weight up so they can move to the bathroom; bloody tiles and a bloody tub will be much easier to clean than bloody sheets and a bloody carpet and save them having to explain things.

Peter sighs, mustering up the strength and energy to lift himself off the bed and save her the effort then he follows her to the bathroom. She has him strip off all his clothes and sit on the closed toilet lid as she gets to work cleaning up the smaller scratches over his torso which luckily don’t need any other intervention. Once she’s done with those she moves onto the large slice across his stomach that’s fortunately not actively bleeding anymore, Peter’s enhanced healing already working. She then sutures the wound edges together—her sutures are messy as she’s out of practice, she hasn’t had to do this since they were in high school.

When she’s stitched him up she puts some dressing over it then has Peter take some aspirin, it doesn’t really work on him due to his fast metabolism which metabolises most drugs before his body can absorb them, but it helps to put her at ease slightly.

They move back to the bedroom once she’s done and has cleaned everything up and Peter collapses onto the bed whilst MJ paces at the foot of the bed.

After a stretch of silence he says, “I’m really sorry MJ. I was on my way here—I was, but then an Avengers emergency came up. It was all so sudden I didn’t have time to call or text you or May before I was in a Quinjet to Europe. I couldn’t exactly say no.”

That causes MJ to snap. “Yes you could!”

“Em—” Peter tries to reason with her.

“No, don’t Em me,” she stops him. “We agreed, we meet here _no matter what_. Did you even stop to think about me before you happily said yes to being whisked away on a European adventure with you Avenger friends?”

He looks at her incredulously. “Of course—”

“No because you never do. You’re selfish. Always throwing yourself head first into danger without thinking about how your actions impact the rest of us!” MJ pauses, takes a deep and audible breath in then out to calm herself down. “This is supposed to be our one romantic weekend away, just for us. I didn’t plan to spend my Friday night waiting for you worried sick then patching you up Peter.”

She sits down on the edge of the bed, too exhausted to keep up her pacing.

Quietly, Peter speaks, “I know MJ and I’m sorry. I had them drop me off here in the Quinjet because I knew I had to get you. I didn’t mean to make you worry.”

He shuffles along the bed towards her and reaches a hand out to touch her but MJ gets up off the bed before he can do so, muttering, “I’m going out. I just—I need some space, don’t wait up.” Before she puts a hoodie and her converse on with her pajamas still on underneath. She grabs her keys then is out of the door before Peter can protest her leaving alone in the middle of the night.

She quickly makes her way towards the center of town, tears streaming down her face with no idea where she’s even headed. It’d been so long since she’d had to face the very real possibility of Peter dying, had to patch up his bruised and bleeding body and had to watch the usually energetic and unable to sit down boy barely be able to keep his own weight up and having to lean his weight on any surface. Peter tells her stories of his patrols in Massachusetts when they Facetime, but she now suspects he always leaves out the bad ones, sticking only to the benign ones so she’d almost forgotten how dangerous what he does actually is as she’d lived her life on the west coast away from the Spider-Man mania.

MJ arrives in front of Eleanora’s though she hadn’t intended to come here just as Eleanora and her husband are locking up the diner for the night.

Eleanora takes one look at MJ and likely sees her tear-stained cheeks despite MJ’s best efforts to wipe away at them, then tells her husband she’s gonna hang back and she’ll meet him at home soon. She unlocks the diner and gestures for MJ to come in.

Once they’re inside MJ sits down in one of the stools by the counter rather than the booth seats she’s become so used to sitting in when she comes here. She sits there by herself for a few minutes as Eleanora potters around in the back then she comes back with a large bowl of sweet potato fries and a milkshake which she wordlessly hands to MJ who gratefully accepts them and digs in immediately. She only now realises how hungry she is, remembering how she’d skipped out on dinner whilst waiting for Peter to come.

Eleanora just watches her with a fond, almost-maternal (though MJ wouldn’t know) smile on her face as MJ eats all the food in front of her then downs the milkshake. Eleanora cleans up after MJ is done then comes back to stand in front of MJ then only then does she say something. “Are you okay, pretty thing?”

MJ shakes her head no. “Peter and I we—we had a fight,” she doesn’t know how best to explain this without giving away too much.

“Oh sweetheart,” the older woman coos. “It’s perfectly normal to fight sometimes.”

“I know.” MJ pauses, considers her words. “Peter just really scared me tonight. I thought I was gonna lose him,” she admits quietly.

Eleanora walks around the counter and comes to wrap MJ up in a warm, tight hug that MJ who’s usually averse to physical contact from people unless she’s really comfortable around them (i.e. they’re her dad, Peter or May) finds comforting. She allows herself to sink into the older woman’s embrace, breathing in the faint smell of grease and sugar that lingers on Eleanora’s clothes and allowing it to calm her down.

After a prolonged moment, Eleanora eventually pulls away from the hug and perches in the stool next to MJ’s. “If Peter scared you tonight, you need to let him know that so he understands how you’re feeling.”

“I will,” she nods solemnly.

A beat, then: “Being so afraid of losing someone that you feel sick at the thought of a world without them is unfortunately part and parcel of loving someone.” Eleanora pauses for a moment to look into MJ’s eyes before continuing. “But you shouldn’t let that fear get in the way of your happiness. Get in the way of _love_. You love Peter and he loves you; you should focus on that rather than what could go wrong because you’ll just live your life in fear of constantly losing him. Focus on the here and now, not on the what ifs and the hypotheticals, they’re just that— _hypotheticals_. Yours and Peter’s love isn’t a hypothetical.”

MJ finds herself crying once again as she takes in the older woman’s words.

Eleanora simply takes her into her arms once again and just holds her, her hand soothingly rubbing at MJ’s back.

They stay like for a while, MJ isn’t sure how long it is, until she feels a bit calmer than when she’d run out on Peter. So she then bids the older woman goodbye and apologises for keeping her after she’d closed up for the day though Eleanora insists that it’s okay and that she’s always there whenever MJ needs.

MJ slowly makes her way back to the motel; part of her hoping Peter is awake so they can talk but also hoping he’s asleep because she doesn’t know if she can face him after everything especially her little display of running away.

When she unlocks the door to their room she finds him pacing right in front of the door, fully dressed including his sneakers. He stops his pacing and rushes to hug her tightly, “Oh God Em. I was so worried about you but I also wanted to give you space. I didn’t know what to do.”

She wraps her arms around his neck to press him more tightly against her and he smells of her shampoo and conditioner, and like _home_. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have run out like that.”

“It’s okay. I’m sorry too for, y’know, worrying you,” he whispers back.

He then lifts her up and carries her in his arms to bed, briefly taking a moment to kick his shoes off before joining her on the bed, wrapping her up in his arms at the center of the bed.

They lie like that, cuddled up together and breathing synchronously until MJ eventually breaks the silence. “I guess because I’m on a whole other coast and don’t get to see you after your patrols I’d forgotten how dangerous being Spider-Man is and seeing you injured and having to patch you up for the first time since we’ve been in college kind of freaked me out,” she quietly admits with a shaky exhale. “I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did, I’m sorry. But the way you throw yourself into danger and the possibility of you getting hurt is something I hadn’t had to think about for a while, and it scares me to think about it.”

Peter rubs her back tenderly as she speaks. “I didn’t think about how just going away on a mission without letting you know, or how seeing me all banged up would affect you. I’m really sorry. We’re a partnership and I need to inform you of things and always consider you.”

She lifts her head off his shoulder so she can look down at him. “I love you,” she whispers.

“I love you too,” he whispers back before leaning up to press his lips against hers in a gentle kiss.

MJ thinks—no, she _knows_ —they’ll be okay, they’ll figure out how to do this because what they have is real, no hypothetical, and it’s worth fighting for even if she might get scared.

* * *

**_year 4, semester 2_ **

MJ checks her phone for likely the twentieth time within the last sixty seconds, quickly re-reading Peter’s words for the umpteenth time since she first received his message when she landed and took her phone off airplane mode.

> **Arachnid-Boy <3**: _Here at the motel. Can’t wait to see you :) <3<3<3_

And just like the first time she read the message, a warmth blooms within her, her heart rate inches up by a measure, and she feels breathless. She has to bite on the knuckle of her index finger to stop herself from squealing. She’s no longer embarrassed by the person she has become because of Peter; she embraces it because she’s allowed to be youthful and excited by her person. She has no shame about how in love with Peter she is because knows for certain that he loves her just as much.

She puts her phone away in the pocket of her backpack so she can make conversation with Dave with his fluffy pink steering wheel cover.

“My daughter says she wants to go to Stanford too you know,” Dave says, a small proud smile playing on his lips at the mere mention of his only daughter, the same daughter who got him pink fluffy steering wheel cover.

“Oh yeah? It’s a great school, I’d highly recommend it.”

“California is so far, I’ll miss her so much,” he says sadly. Then after a moment, “She’s not off to college for another two years at least, so I’ll make the most of this time before she flies away.”

MJ smiles at his words. “You could always meet up at a halfway point between Nebraska and California,” MJ jokes.

Dave laughs at her words before a comfortable silence settles over them as he re-focuses on the road ahead of them.

Not long after they pull up at the motel that’s become so familiar to her over the last few years of college and MJ pays him cash then grabs her backpack and climbs out of the car.

She first stops by the front office to chat to Alicia. Alicia tells her of how she’s been doing a business masters part time whilst managing the motel. MJ praises her because juggling the two can’t be no easy feat, then tells Alicia how she’s finally done with college now her graduation ceremony scheduled for next week. She also tells Alicia about how she’s moving back to New York to go to NYU Law and Peter will also be moving back to New York. Alicia tells her she’ll be sad to see them go, they were her favorite guests and her voice sounds the sincerest MJ has ever heard it in the four years she’s known her.

The two exchange numbers before MJ leaves to head to her and Peter’s room. She knocks on the door even though she knows Peter will have left the door unlocked anyway, just because she gets a small amount of joy from seeing him open the door for her—the way his face lights up when he first sees her, a wide grin stretching out across his face.

“You’re here,” he breathes out before rushing forward to wrap his arms around her and pull her inside, the door slamming closed behind her.

“You’re here,” she whispers back into his hair, breathing him in and melting into his embrace.

She pulls away from their hug first and moves her arms from around his neck to his face so she can pull him in for a kiss. Their kiss starts off slow, just gentle strokes of their tongues as they familiarise themselves with the other but soon it turns heated, MJ nipping at his bottom lip and snaking her hands down to squeeze at his ass.

At some point Peter pulls her backpack off her back and picks her up all while their lips are still connected, hungrily moving together. He carries her to the bed where he gently lays her down then finally pulls away from her lips, which causes MJ to whine in protest.

Peter just snorts at her impatience as he moves to take her shoes off for her then he crawls up towards her to re-join their lips.

As they kiss, clothes slowly come off and hands roam hungrily over the other’s skin. When Peter finally enters her MJ sighs out in relief because it’d been so long, and having him on her, _in her_ , is exactly what she’d been missing and feels like coming home.

They move together languidly, revelling in the feeling of being in each other’s arms once again, of being together like this again after months where they couldn’t get out to Aurora because of finals (their last every of Undergrad, it’s still hard to believe).

When they’re done, they take turns showering and getting dressed before they head out to Eleanora’s where they settle in the familiar corner booth.

Eleanora greets the couple warmly and gushes about how adorable they are, the way she always does, but she also tells MJ she got her package and thanks her for it—MJ had sent a thank you card and had some lilies (real ones, not the fake ones that decorate the tables of the diner) sent to her as a thank you for the last time they saw each other.

When they’ve ordered their food they make small talk, catching the other up on how their journeys into Aurora were amongst other things whilst they wait for their food.

When their food eventually arrives, they eat it in a comfortable silence, both too hungry to talk and eat. When MJ is full she pushes her plate across to Peter for him to finish off the rest of her food which he gladly does.

MJ watches him eat the food, stuffing fries five at-a-time into his mouth and finishing off the rest of her burger in three big bites. He eats like a pig, practically inhaling any food you put in front of him and it should gross her out but it doesn’t. She loves him so much.

“What?” Peter asks, between bites of fries when he notices her watching him.

MJ doesn’t answer straightaway, thinking for a moment. Then: “What if—what if we got married? Like, here in Aurora.”

“That’d be really cute, a nice way to commemorate the place since we’ve spent so long here,” Peter says with small smile.

“I meant like, _tomorrow_.” A pause. “Let’s get married here tomorrow,” she says it more assuredly this time.

Peter chokes on the handful of fries he’d just shoved into his mouth and has to grab a napkin to spit them out onto. He’s so gross, yet this is the person she wants to spend the rest of her life with. She wants to marry him right this instant and would if she could.

“ _What_?”

“I mean, we love each other and we’re here right now. Why not just get married?”

There’s a stretch of silence where Peter doesn’t say anything then gradually she sees him visibly relax, opening up to the idea. “Yeah. Let’s do it, let’s get married here tomorrow,” he says with a firm, assured nod and MJ feels her heart swell in her chest.

The two of them just stare at each other from across the table, wearing matching goofy grins and can feel the heat rising in her cheeks just as she can see Peter’s cheeks redden.

Their moment is interrupted by Eleanora appearing by their table. “Did I hear that you two lovebirds wanna get married tomorrow? Because old Eleanora here is ordained.”

MJ can’t even be mad at the nosy older woman for eavesdropping on them because this is perfect. Her and Peter look at each briefly, both nodding in agreement to a silent question before they turn to look at Eleanora.

“That’s be amazing, Eleanora,” MJ says gratefully.

Eleanora claps her hands together excitedly. “Oh this is wonderful, about time too,” she says eyeing the pair pointedly. “You guys can get married at our place if you want, we have a large backyard.”

Peter and MJ look at each other again, having a silent conversation with just looks before MJ turns back to Eleanora. “Actually, we were thinking of getting married at the motel—at Budget Host-Ken’s Motel.”

Eleanora eyes them disbelievingly. “Are you guys sure that’s where you wanna get married?”

With no hesitation they both respond, “Yes,” at the same time.

“Well I’ll check with Alicia if we can but we’d really like to,” MJ adds.

“Well alright,” Eleanora says, not quite on board but also accepting that this is what the young couple wants. “MJ you can stay at my place tonight, we’ll fix up the guest bedroom for you.”

“Oh no, you don’t have—”

MJ’s protests are interrupted by Eleanora. “Yes I do, the bride and groom shouldn’t stay with each other the eve of their wedding. It’s tradition.” MJ goes to protest again, to let the older woman know that they’re eloping in a motel room, they really don’t care about tradition but Eleanora is insistent. “I won’t take no for an answer Michelle.”

MJ therefore has to relent. “Okay. Thank you again for all this.”

After that Eleanora kicks Peter out telling him to go and clean up and set up the motel room. MJ stays at the diner with Eleanora as Eleanora makes plans for them to buy her a dress in the morning when the local boutiques are open again. Once they have everything planned out Eleanora leaves MJ to wait for her with a glass of milkshake, MJ uses that time to call Alicia who happily tells her they can do that so long as she’s invited to their “wedding”.

Once Eleanora has cleaned up and locked up the diner, they make the short walk to their house and Eleanora shows MJ to the guest bedroom and tells her where to find the bathroom before she leaves her to settle in for the night.

MJ manages to sleep relatively well despite her excitement and the fact that she’s in a strange bed away from Peter; it’s strange.

She wakes up mid-morning when the sun is already out and finds neatly folded clothes outside her bedroom door with a sticky note saying she’ll be waiting downstairs with breakfast whenever MJ is ready.

MJ showers and changes into the clothes Eleanora gave her then makes her way downstairs to the kitchen at the back of the house.

There she’s greeted by Eleanora who is as cheery and chatty as she always is. “Good morning!” Her eyes look to the clothes MJ is wearing. “Oh I’m glad Mary Jane’s clothes fit,” she says, referring to her adult daughter’s clothes that MJ currently wears.

“Yeah, thank you for the clothes…and for just, _everything_.”

“You don’t have to keep thanking me Michelle. Now eat up, we have a wedding dress to shop for,” she says, shoving a plate piled high with a stack of pancakes towards MJ.

Once they’re finished with breakfast they go to the center of town, with the plan being to go into each of the three clothes boutiques in Aurora one at a time to find something that can pass for a wedding dress.

They have no luck in the first store, though they find a knee length floral dress they decide to keep in mind should they fail to find other options.

The second store is even worse, there are no wedding-type dresses or any nice dresses to MJ’s taste in the store at all.

Finally they get to the third store, the one her and Peter had been kicked out of by the owner the very first time they came to Aurora when she saw they were just messing around trying on clothes with no intention of buying anything. The same owner is in the store when MJ and Eleanora walk out but luckily she either doesn’t recognise MJ or decides not to mention anything because Eleanora is there with her, and the owner shows them to a dress she thinks is perfect for MJ.

The dress is ivory coloured, made out of a smooth silk material with dainty straps and a low neckline and it comes to just below her knees in length. The owner was right, it _is_ perfect for her.

Eleanora is paying for the dress and a pair of simple black heels she finds on the shoe rack before MJ has the chance to protest that she’s already done so much for them, she doesn’t need to do this as well.

After that they head back to Eleanora’s house so MJ can change into the dress and heels Eleanora bought for her. MJ opts to not do her hair or her makeup, going for the natural look instead.

When she’s done Eleanora then drives her to the motel room—she’s insistent that the bride shouldn’t be walking across town to her own wedding.

As Eleanora parks her car at the front of the motel MJ starts to feel nervous about all of this for the first time, and as if sensing her nerves, Eleanora grabs MJ’s hands in her own. “You have nothing to be nervous about Michelle. You and Peter loved each other, I’ve known you’d get married from the moment the two of you first walked into my diner looking lost and so hopelessly in love.”

That makes MJ smile, and her nerves dissipate. She then climbs out of Eleanora’s car and the two of them make their way around to the room her and Peter have gotten every time they’ve come to Aurora over the past four years.

She knocks on the door out of habit and is met by Alicia’s grinning face on the other side of the door (she’s never seen Alicia smiling this much, she doesn’t think).

When the door opens the rest of the way to reveal the rest of the room MJ sees how all the furniture has been pushed to the far corner of the room. There are scented candles similar to the ones Peter had bought when they had their “fancy” date here in this very motel room, dotted all around the room as well.

At the center of the room stands Peter, in a pair of smart black trousers and a white shirt that looks slightly too big on him. She thinks he looks perfect.

They smile widely at each other when their eyes meet then MJ walks to go and stand by his side as Eleanora comes to stand in front of them.

“You look pretty,” Peter says in greeting.

“You look pretty too.”

Once again, they smile widely at each other and continue staring at each other until Eleanora speaks out. “Let us begin.”

They go through the motions of Eleanora introducing the ceremony then each saying the standardised vows to each other, but the two are more focused on each other because there’s nothing that matters more. It doesn’t matter that they’re in an old motel room in the middle of nowhere, or that this was all rushed and last minute. All that matters is that they’re both here and they love each other.

MJ doesn’t know about the validity of a wedding in a motel room officiated by a diner owner, but she knows about the validity of her feelings for Peter. Knows with certainty the same way she knows that the earth is round, the sky is blue due to the effect of Raleigh scattering and that her name is Michelle Jones, that she loves Peter Parker with all of her being. She’d fly to any part of the country, any part of the _world_ and stay in all the old motels in existence with lumpy mattresses that have old springs that dig into your back just so she could spend time with him, just so she could hold him in her arms.

She loves him so much, her dumbass.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed this latest way-too-long-because-I-don't-understand-the-concept-of-brevity oneshot (this is my longest oneshot ever!). As always, comments and kudos are much appreciated!!!
> 
> You can find me on [tumblr](https://tvfanatic97-2.tumblr.com/) and on [twitter](https://twitter.com/dayaspsychic) x


End file.
